Minn govt shutdown shines negatively upon T-Poor

[240 is Back]

Even before the Minnesota government shut down at midnight Friday, Democrats were already pointing to Pawlenty as a prime culprit in the $5 billion deficit that stands between Dayton, the Republican legislature and a balanced budget.

Throughout the day, Democratic Party committees and independent groups pummeled the former governor, using the shutdown to intensify a favorite line of attack: that Pawlenty managed the Minnesota budget through a long string of gimmicks and short-term fixes that have now come home to roost.

Former White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, who heads pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA, trumpeted the state deficit as a sign of “the folly of Pawlenty’s economic case,” blaming him for “the shutdown that great state is experiencing today.”

“His record is terrible and his strategy for the national economy was basically laughed into submission,” Burton wrote in an email.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58233.html#ixzz1QzVnr9Hu

[240 is Back]

Pawlenty critics have more than a few exhibits in their range of evidence, starting with a 2010 report from the National Conference of State Legislatures showing that Minnesota used one-time budget tricks to close 41 percent of its spending gap in that fiscal year.

Over Pawlenty’s term in office, the state used stimulus funds to patch budget holes, shifted education funding responsibilities from state to local government and cashed out money from a tobacco settlement fund. In 2005, Pawlenty helped work his way out of Minnesota’s last government shutdown by imposing a new tax on cigarettes that he called a “user fee.”

It’s not just Pawlenty’s national critics – or even just Democrats – who say his administration is at fault in this year’s shutdown.

“What we’re seeing now is the culmination of eight years of doing patchwork solutions without fixing the underlying problems.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58233_Page2.html#ixzz1QzW9x6HA